Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Abercrombie & Fitch Co. rose the
most in more than a month after posting fourth-quarter profit
that topped analysts’ estimates and saying it would buy back
$150 million in shares in the current quarter.

The stock climbed 11 percent to $40.04 at the close in New
York. Shares of the New Albany, Ohio-based company have gained
22 percent this year, compared with a 0.2 percent drop for the
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Profit excluding restructuring and asset-impairment charges
was $1.34 a share in the quarter ended Feb. 1, the company said
today in a statement. The average of 29 analysts’ estimates
compiled by Bloomberg was $1.04.

“It’s certainly encouraging,” Stephanie Wissink, a
Minneapolis-based analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos., said in a phone
interview. The company is “strikingly profitable, even with a
U.S. business that’s severely depressed.”

The company also announced the accelerated share-repurchase
program that will be executed in the current quarter as part of
its existing authorization to buy back 16.3 million shares.

Engaged Capital LLC, an investment company that specializes
in small- and mid-cap stocks, prodded Abercrombie to consider
selling itself to a private-equity firm last year. It also urged
the company to search for a new chief executive officer to
replace Michael Jeffries amid falling sales.

The buyback signals that the company is willing to use its
capital to reward investors and that the retailer’s formerly
rapid pace of growth may be over, said Wissink, who has the
equivalent of a buy rating on the shares.

“It also satisfies the speculation that there’s some lack
of shareholder awareness,” she said.